Also missing out were Eve Myles for Actress in Baker Boys and Helen Raynor, who was co-nominated (with Gary Owen) for the Writer prize, again for Baker Boys. Those categories went to, respectively, Sharon Morgan for the film Resistance and Eddie Butler for Lions '71.

Tonight's ceremony was hosted by Alex Jones at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

9/30/2012 10:36:00 pm -
Reported by
John Bowman

Karen Gillan has moved back to Scotland and back home with her parents: "It's a really funny thought having all these crazy experiences on Doctor Who, then always seeming to end up back in my old childhood bedroom, with my childhood posters. I've got a Muse one, from when I was like an angsty teen. And I've got a Daniel O'Donnell calendar, which I thought would be really funny when I was younger, from 2004 or something. I lie there and I am like, has all that just really happened? Or did I just imagine it?"[Daily Record, 24 Sep 2012]

Arthur Darvill, currently appearing in Our Boys at The Duchess Theatre in London, recalls his first theatre appearance: "I was confronted with 1,000 people. I thought, 'Oh my God, what am I doing?' I've been so nervous during shows that I've walked offstage at the end and immediately forgotten everything that I've just done. You hear stories about stage fright, but if you know that someone's experienced it, you don't mention it – just in case. You never know what can set it off. It is a terrifying thing walking out for the first time, but it's funny how quickly that fades. Later, you start to crave that fear."[Guardian, 21 Sep 2012]

Colin Baker is to appear as Nurse Nellie in this year's Sleeping Beauty pantomime at Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre: "Nurse Nellie is a dame, and dames do what dames do which is to be 'mumsy', and inept, and funny, and hopefully create a few laughs along the way. I did dame three or four times before they asked me to do villain again, which I've been doing for the last six or seven years. I've been asking Martin Dodd (of UK Productions) if I can do dame again, and he said how do you fancy doing it in Bournemouth? I said, yes please!" He also commented on how much he likes the current Doctor: "I love Matt Smith. When I heard they were casting a 12-year-old I got very depressed as I like my old Doctors. He may only be 12, but inside there is a 900-year-old Time Lord and I absolutely believe it. I think he's fantastic and I love watching it."[What's On Stage, 24 Sep 2012]

Former actor Michael Cashman received the Lifetime Achievement honour at the European Diversity Awards 2012, held at The Savoy in London. Cashman, now a Labour MEP for the West Midlands and the party's human-rights spokesman in the European Parliament, said he was "very happy and humbled" to accept it.

Hugh Bonneville is to play the title role of Mr Stink in a BBC One adaptation of the children's novel by David Walliams. The one-hour family comedy, adapted by Walliams and Simon Nye, begins filming in October and is set to be transmitted later this year. Bonneville said: "I'm delighted to be adding my own whiff to the odour that emanates from David Walliams... and his very funny, touching, and thought-provoking story." Walliams, who will play the Prime Minister in it, added: "I am thrilled that Hugh is playing Mr Stink. He is one of the most popular and talented actors around, and is the perfect person to bring out the character's humour and sadness."[BBC Media Centre, 21 Sep 2012]

Make-up designer Neill Gorton explains what led him to take up the career of creating prosthetics: "We used to do family trips to Blackpool where they had a Doctor Who exhibition. Now, when, as a kid, I saw Davros on the TV, I remember thinking, 'Where did they get this incredibly ugly old man?' Then, at the exhibition, they had a Davros mask on display. That was when it dawned on me... it was a mask! Then it sank in that someone had to make it, and that is my earliest recollection of wanting to do what I do."[Scotsman, 27 Sep 2012]

With the imminent return of cult sci-fi comedy Red Dwarfto our TV screens, two of its stars have spoken of their wish for a Doctor Who crossover. Craig Charles, aka Dave Lister, said: "I think it'd be great if, for one scene, we could be beaming somewhere and suddenly we'd be on the Tardis with the Doctor. Then we could shake our heads, say 'nah', and just beam back out again." Fellow Dwarfer Danny John-Jules, who plays The Cat, added: "I think Doug Naylor should write in one of the old Doctors. Sylvester McCoy or someone. And then we could have an episode with one of those guys in it. It would be funny."[Radio Times, 25 Sep 2012]

Imelda Staunton and Tim Pigott-Smith are up for gongs in this year's Theatre Awards UK. Staunton is nominated for Best Performance In A Musical (Sweeney Todd) and Pigott-Smith is in the running for Best Performance In A Play (King Lear). The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday 28th October at the Guildhall in London. [The Stage, 27 Sep 2012]

9/30/2012 10:01:00 pm -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

Speaking at the Recon event today, DVD producer Dan Hall outlined some of BBC Worldwide's plans for releases during the course of next year.

With the exception of one boxed set (believed to be the Legacy set of Shada and More Than Thirty Years In The TARDIS due to come out after The Claws of Axos SE) all releases next year will be individual stories. New titles include Terror of the Zygons, The Mind of Evil and The Reign Of Terror, and there will also be (at least) four Re-Visitations (one of which is the previously announced Inferno).

The recently recovered episode Air Lock from Galaxy 4 is still in the process of being restored, but is hoped to be released alongside another title next year; the status of The Underwater Menace's episode two was not clarified, however.

During a discussion over the animation of The Reign of Terror (episode four being shown at the event), he explained that it was unlikely that more than two episodes could be animated within allocated budgets - though intimated, there were no formal announcements of further forthcoming animated episodes at present.

There was also clarification over the forthcoming Shada release, which will not be a complete version of the story. Hall explained that he felt his role was not to 'create' new (i.e. original) material and this was a decision that would need to be made by the BBC rather than BBC Worldwide - he also thought that such a project couldn't be undertaken to the required BBC quality guidelines within the budgets available to the DVD range. From a personal perspective he believed that editorially it should also remain unfinished, reflecting the series production.

The range is expected to have a story released every three weeks during 2013 leading up to the 50th Anniversary. The first DVDs of this "full schedule" will be announced in the next edition of Doctor Who Magazine.

9/30/2012 09:20:00 am -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

A roundup of selected quotes from the media for the premiere of The Angels Take Manhattan last night - links to the full review can be found via the author's name. You can also read our own review here.

Please note that as these are reviews, spoilers may be present within the text!

Radio Times

That was so damned good. I laughed. I cried. I was on the edge of my seat. I jumped out of my skin. That to me is perfect entertainment. Every piece of my emotional machinery was fully engaged. I'm now going to have to have a lie down and take a valium because I don't think I can actually get through the rest of the day!

Guardian:

Amy and Rory left the only way they really could. The Weeping Angels felt like they were created for this very scene: Amy and Rory zapped back in time to live out their long, happy lives without the Doctor. Since the Tardis crashlanded into her back garden, Amy's story had been one about growing up. At the start, she chose a life of adventure with her Raggedy Man over the prospect of normality with Rory. But now, faced with that decision again, there was no contest.

This was a fitting end to a golden era, and bravo to Steven Moffat for telling such an involving, emotional story with such style. That last scene, as the Doctor darted through the streets of New York – grabbing at the final page as it flapped in the wind, speeding toward the ending he'd refused to accept was coming! Here ended Doctor Who's ultimate fairytale in the way it had begun – in the pages of a storybook.

Telegraph

The Angels Take Manhattan brought this mini-run of the series to a close with easily the best episode of the five: a powerful, taut, compelling, filmic, emotionally punchy affair which re-established the Angels as one of the standout monsters of the series and gave Amy Pond a fine send off.

Independent

The Angels take Manhattan was a wonderful swansong to the duo, it drew on the film noir genre and combined it with fantasy and horror. Added to this, the cinematography was superb and everything looked very stylish. The Weeping Angels haven’t been this scary since Blink and there was a real sense of danger. On top of this the introduction of the baby cherubim Angels was a devilish little touch that added to the fear factor, not to mention the Statue of Liberty becoming a gigantic Angel. The only flaw was the rule that time cannot be changed if one knows what is going to happen. After watching the last series though it is probably best not to question the timey wimey side of things and just accept it and enjoy the adventure.

What a momentous end to this half of the series, apart from the Christmas special there is no more Doctor Who in 2012. The cyclical ending to this episode takes viewers right back to the start, back to a young Amelia Pond with a suitcase in her back garden waiting for her raggedy man. This image alone inspires a compelling urge to return to The Eleventh Hour and re-live the Ponds’ adventures from the beginning.

The Mirror

It was shocks and tension all the way, and anyone who wasn't riveted probably wasn't paying attention. Doctor Who now demands attention, and it's simultaneously a wonderful and a rather sorry thing that one of the most challenging dramas on TV at the moment is ostensibly aimed at kids. But heck, why let them have all the fun?

In The Angels Take Manhattan, it's the heroines who often take the lead, dramatically and emotionally, with River's anger that the Doctor would waste his regeneration energy on her, and Amy's truly heartbreaking decision that mutual suicide is preferable to a life without the man she so completely and utterly loves. Beautiful yet terrible, believable without ever being mawkish, it was a true statement of love between two characters who - let's face it - we've all come to love just a bit over the last two and a half years of Who.

SFX

The episode also had a great noir feel, which director Nick Hurran captured perfectly. Even a simple scene such as River and Rory being driven around 1930s New York in the back of a car looked stunning. Hurran also excelled in the creepy scenes; Rory being menaced by the baby angels in the basement was strong stuff, with some excellent sound design (that freaky giggling).

Thank God the departure of Amy and Rory was delivered with such gutwrenching emotion, because the dramatic clout of their bittersweet exit from the show distracted you from the fact that this was a bit of a multi-“Huh?!” episode. On one level it’s a glorious, daring, gutsy, high-concept and hugely entertaining slice of Who, with individual moments of the show at its best: creepy, funny and visually arresting. On another level, it’s downright baffling…

Digital Spy

Wrapping up a three-year character arc and writing out two much-loved actors at the same time is no easy task, and for the most part Steven Moffat pulls it off with style. And beyond script and performance, 'Angels' also boasts superb production design, another in a long series of enthralling Murray Gold musical scores and dynamic direction from Nick Hurran, who also handled the excellent 'Asylum of the Daleks'.

Doctor Who's final episode 'til the festive season is easily the equal of that hugely impressive opener. Is it perfect? Perhaps not - but it did leave us feeling both moved and almost entirely satisfied.

Den of Geek

Steven Moffat’s script gave both Gillan and Arthur Darvill an awful lot of work to do. Confronted with their potential separation, there was humour, action and emotion, and the performances from Gillan and Darvill were both up to the job. We’ve said before that we’re particularly going to miss Arthur Darvill. His performance as Rory has evolved and impressed more and more as the episodes have rolled on.

Matt Smith, though, was also in tip top form, and the foreboding warning that his Doctor should never travel alone came through loud and clear here. It felt like quite a few things were being established for him to consider in the next run of episodes, and it'll be interesting to see how those threads develop. For now, not for the first time nor the last, The Doctor was faced with losing dear friends and companions (and just how special Amy was to him was explored in The Power Of Three), and Smith sold the heartbreak and loneliness of this tremendously well.

Entertainment Weekly

The departure of the Ponds, and the manner in which they left, is bound to provoke mixed feelings. Many fans will obviously feel bereft while some may believe Moffat has played the “Someone’s-going-to-die!” card once too often, even if he was once again technically correct in doing so. Although I am certainly not among them, there are a few Who followers who have never warmed to Gillan’s spiky sidekick and will be looking forward to an Amy-free TARDIS. But there is no doubt that, as companions, the Ponds played a bigger-than-most role in the life of the Time Lord — or this particular incarnation of it anyway. While the convoluted familial interweaving of Amy, Rory, the Doctor, and River Song may have caused head scratching at times, they were a family — the first, really, to inhabit that famous blue box — and Gillan and Darvill’s exit leaves a sizable hole even in a structure which is, yes, much bigger on the inside. When your writer spoke to Grey’s Anatomy creator and Who fanatic Shonda Rhimes earlier this year, she suggested that, since Amy’s arrival, the show has essentially been told from her point of view. That’s a debatable point, albeit one that seemed to be reinforced this episode by the way Amy was allowed to have the last word when it came to the end of her relationship with the “Raggedy Man.” Regardless, Jenna-Louise Coleman, who will play the Doctor’s new assistant when the show returns with this year’s Christmas special, has big shoes to fill — and four of them.

TV.com

For me, this was an extremely touching episode that really highlighted the best parts of Amy's character—her feistiness, her sense of adventure, and her love for Rory. There were great performances all around, but I especially liked hers. I loved that she didn't struggle with her decision to choose Rory over the Doctor—she made her mind up and that was it. Her end wasn't a result of the Doctor's negligence, a quirk of time travel, or her weariness of leading a double life; her end came because she had to choose, and she chose her marriage.

My only complaint about the episode, outside of a few nit-picky time-travel/storyline issues mentioned below, was that the plot was barely affected by the Doctor. He seemed powerless to fix the problems that came up, from River's arm to Rory escaping the Angels, but perhaps that was for the best. It was Amy's story, and it came to a satisfying close for me. Sometimes it's not about the complexities of endless time travel—sometimes it's just about a girl faced with two men she loves and a choice to make.

Zap2It

As an episode of "Doctor Who," "The Angels Take Manhattan" benefited from excellent on-location use of New York City and a clever film noir style that sprang from a book River Song was writing under the nom de plume Melody Malone. But that was just the window dressing. The main event of "The Angels Take Manhattan" was Amy and Rory's goodbye, which was pulled off with suspense, humor and maximum emotional impact.

Assignment X

Although it’s nice to know Amy and Rory live a happy life together, even that revelation feels misjudged at the end by leaving it off camera. We only have Amy’s voice over to tell us rather than provide one single shot of the two of them reunited in the past and at long last freed from the Doctor’s meddling (which is definitely how it felt in the last several stories – remember when traveling with the Doctor was supposed to be exciting and make you into a better person?). Even in trying to provide some sort of conclusion to one of the series’ most convoluted stories, this episode manages to miss the little touches that would have made it better. For my part, I’d just like to move on now.

Huffington Post

I wish I had liked "Angels" more than I did, but there was a lot of throat-clearing before we got to the meat of the story: We met a couple of characters (the rich guy and the hard-boiled detective) who didn't matter in the end, and River simply took up too much space, plotwise and emotionally. She got in the way. And normally, I love film noir, but the big and operatic tone the director was clearly going for clashed with the mood of film noir, which is all about bittersweet cynicism. The scene in Central Park was fun, but it felt like it was from a different episode. "Angels" simply didn't cohere.

Part of the reason the episode didn't fully work for me was because I dislike the kind of timey-wimey machinations on display here. It's just a personal dislike; I'm willing to concede that others may not share it (and yes, I get that this kind of thing is somewhat baked into the premise). The detective novel, the Angels, the apartment building, the clues -- I more or less understand how all that worked, but the episode featured yet another Moffat-style house-of-mirrors plot that buried the emotional beats in time math. Trying to figure out how it all worked and what it all meant stopped me from being able to fully bask in the Ponds' exit.

Unreality TV

Overall a well-produced episode with some fine performances, attention to period detail and excellent use of the terrifying weeping angels. It’s a shame then that all of this is somewhat eclipsed by the fact that this will always be seen as Amy and Rory’s last episode and in that respect I feel that more time should’ve been allocated to this exit. It seemed to me to be very sudden and after all the build-up I was thinking we would get something more spectacular than what we ultimately did. Instead this was a very low-key send-off with a couple of nice touches though I thought I’d feel a lot more emotional than I actually did. I will miss the Ponds as Amy and Rory had a great chemistry with The Doctor and will always be associated with this incarnation of the character so now we’ll have to wait till Christmas to see if the new assistant can successfully replace them.

9/30/2012 07:43:00 am -
Reported by
Adam Kirk

The Power of Three has averaged 565,000 viewers in the five major Australian capital cities. It was the top-rating ABC drama of the day and the thirteenth highest rating programme of the day overall. These figures do not include regional and rural viewers, time-shifted viewers and iView downloads.

9/29/2012 08:25:00 pm -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

The BBC have now released The Last Day of the Ponds, a twelve-minute programme taking an emotional look at Amy and Rory’s time on Doctor Who. The confidentialette features Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill sharing their memories of working on the series, and their feelings over filming their final farewell scenes together.

A screening of the entire film in HD will take place at the Riverside Reflections convention being held by the DWAS in London on Sunday 21st October, where the story's original director, Christopher Barry, and actress Anneke Wills, who played companion Polly in the TV version, will be among the guests.

9/29/2012 01:23:00 pm -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

Please note: the following round-up focuses on interview discussions of tonight's episode, The Angels Take Manhattan, which could be considered as spoilers.

Karen Gillan talks about life after Amy: "Well, I feel like I’m prepared for all the possible genres after playing Amy. And I certainly want variety, that’s for sure. What I enjoy most about acting is being versatile. I like actors like Robin Williams, who can do crazy, absurd characters. I would love to be an actor like that. The one I am really getting into recently is Olivia Colman. She does Peep Show and is brilliant at comedy, but I just watched Tyrannosaur – oh my god! I was on a train going through the Highlands of Scotland crying my eyes out. I want to play character roles, generally. That is my main ambition." And on how she'd want Amy remembered: "I love this girl. I would be too scared to act like her, but I get this artistic licence playing her. I love her dry sarcasm, wit and grumpiness. I'm not a grumpy person. I want to see her go out in flames of glory, where we see her at her absolute best. I just want people to look back over the Pond era fondly. I have had the best years of my life on this show, hand on my heart..."[Big Issue, 24 Sep 2012]

Similarly, Arthur Darvill on his departure from the show: "I can't really conceive that I've even been in it, yet! Do you know what I mean? When we're filming we concentrate so much on making each moment good. Then you see a screen with your face on or a big poster and you're like, 'Oh, that doesn't quite compute in my mind.' I just get on with my job, I don't think it will hit any of us – all three of us, really – until we’ve been a few years out it. Then we’ll realise what we’ve been doing for the last few years. I can't really speak for anyone else but I'm so proud of what we've done on this show, and it's been the best job I've ever had." And next: "I don't know if you can have a plan really. I do have a vague plan – I want to play some horrible people and I want to do some comedy, and I want to do some more theatre. Variety."[TV Choice, 25 Sep 2012]

Matt Smith got some parental feedback on the episode: "I showed my mum some of the rushes, the last couple of scenes, and she was in tears ... so that's good. That's a good sign. I think it's a fantastic farewell. I think it's hugely dramatic. There are wonderful twists. There's a great backdrop for a city. I think it's a fitting end to two of our greatest companions ever. ... I think Steven has written them out heroically, which is fantastic. You sort of want to go with a bit of a bang, don't you?"[TV Guide, 28 Sep 2012]

Steven Moffat talked about writing the final episode for Rory and Amy at the BAFTA preview in Cardiff earlier in the week: "After showing Amelia Pond in the garden as a young girl in The Eleventh Hour, Karen's first episode, the final shot in Saturday's The Angels Take Manhattan is a punchline I have been waiting to tell for two and a half years. This weekend's episode is more devastating for the Doctor, at certain points he becomes useless and emotional. It was torment and hell trying to write the episode, I struggled for ages to work out a fitting ending and changed my mind until I finally got it right."[Press Association via Google, 28 Sep 2012

The writer continued: "I must have rewritten it 20 odd times. I kept changing my mind about the exact way they’d leave, alive or dead? One or both of them? Their fates kept changing every five minutes until I hit on what I thought was right. Hopefully, there are scares AND emotion."[Daily Record, 29 Sep 2012]

9/29/2012 11:10:00 am -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

BBC America are to show a special documentary that examines the Doctor's fascination with the United States:

Doctor Who in the U.S.BBC America, 8/7c

We'll uncover the Doctor's special relationship with the U.S., from Daleks on the streets of New York to robot gunslingers in the Wild West. The special includes behind-the-scenes reports from the Doctor's death in Monument Valley, Utah and the Weeping Angels' invasion of Manhattan and looks back with contributions from current Doctor MATT SMITH, the Tenth Doctor DAVID TENNANT, plus JOHN BARROWMAN (Captain Jack Harkness), ARTHUR DARVILL (Rory Williams), NOEL CLARKE (Mickey) and PETER PURVES (Steven, a companion of the very First Doctor).

The documentary is being shown immediately before the broadcast of The Angels Take Manhattan, tonight at 9pm ET.

9/29/2012 10:08:00 am -
Reported by
John Bowman

A second volume of the TARDIS Eruditorum blog by Philip Sandifer has been published, taking a critical look at the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who story by story.

Sandifer, who holds a PhD in English focusing on film and media studies, says the blog's aim is to provide a comprehensive critical overview of Doctor Who that moves beyond received fan wisdom to tell the evolving story of one of the most important and remarkable pieces of popular culture ever created.

TARDIS Eruditorum has been hailed as "absolutely fascinating and hugely persuasive" by Robert Shearman.

Sandifer uses the blog to provide a complete reconceptualisation of Doctor Who that acknowledges and takes seriously strands of thought and themes that have been marginalised by the fan orthodoxy represented in existing publications, revealing a show with startling and intriguing implications. Under his critical knife, Doctor Who becomes more than just a classic sci-fi show but a show that tells the story of an entire strain of mystical, avant-garde, and radical culture in Great Britain - a show that is quite literally about all of time and space, everything that ever happened, and everything that ever will.

This volume focuses on Doctor Who's intersection with psychedelic Britain and with the radical leftist counterculture of the late-1960s, exploring its connections with James Bond, social realism, dropping acid, and overthrowing the government - along, of course, with scads of monsters, the introduction of UNIT, and the Land of Fiction itself.

Every essay on the Troughton era has been revised and expanded, along with eight new essays written exclusively for this collected edition, including a thorough look at UNIT dating, an exploration of just what was lost in the wiping of the missing episodes, and a look at Stephen Baxter's The Wheel of Ice.

On top of that, you'll discover:

Whether The Mind Robber implies an alternative origin for the Doctor in which he is not a Time Lord but a lord of something else entirely

9/28/2012 10:56:00 am -
Reported by
John Bowman

Problems with printing the charity book Behind The Sofa have delayed its publication.

Due out yesterday, it won't be available now until Friday 12th October.

The book, which is being produced to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK, features more than 100 celebrity reminiscences about Doctor Who, with many of the contributors having close connections to the programme, either in front of or behind the cameras.

Steve Berry, the man whose brainchild it has been, said the final proof files of the book had been signed off by the printer a number of weeks ago but "somewhere along the way, the files were accepted without being checked" and this "led to the last-minute discovery that the book was unsuitable to go to press."

Blaming the production hitch on both his inexperience in preparing a two-colour book for the early production stages of printing and the printer assuming that the book had been correctly supplied by Matador Self-Publishing, Berry has apologised to people who have placed orders and told of his disappointment, saying:

Thank you so much for your patience. I really hope that when the book finally arrives, you agree with me that it was worth the wait.

He added:

I have been working flat-out with the publisher to get the printing under way with corrected proof files. A quick, public thank-you is owed to Gary Wales and Jill Phythian, both of whom offered advice about removing duplicate Pantone colours, and converting CMYK and spot colours to the correct format. Gary, in fact, was on holiday in Montenegro at the time, so him giving up his time is doubly appreciated.

Earlier this year, there were problems between Berry and PayPal following uncertainty about the book's funding but they were resolved, with PayPal apologising to Berry.

9/27/2012 06:10:00 pm -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

AudioGo have released details on audio titles in their spoken word range due to be released in November.

The television soundtrack releases continue with the Fourth Doctor adventure Destiny of The Daleks with linking narration by Lalla Ward (Romana), who also recalls her time on Doctor Who in a special bonus interview. Meanwhile, a new adventure for the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory sees them encounter The Sleepers in The Dust in a story that is a sequel to last year's The Eye of the Jungle.

Destiny of The Daleks
Written by Terry Nation
Narrated by Lalla Ward
Released 4th November 2012 (CD) (pre-order)

Having returned to their home planet Skaro, the Daleks are excavating their former city – but for what? The Doctor and Romana soon find themselves caught in the middle of a war between two different races.

This full-cast TV adventure from 1979 stars Tom Baker as the Doctor alongside Lalla Ward as Romana, who also provides specially recorded linking narration. In a bonus interview Lalla recalls her time on Doctor Who, whilst additional pdf files contain colour scans of the original episode camera scripts.

The Sleepers in The Dust
Written by Darren Jones
Read by Arthur Darvill
Released 1st November 2012 (CD) (pre-order)

On an apparently lifeless world, the Doctor and his friends battle against plague. Will they find the cause - and the cure?

This story features the return of the Nadurni, whom the Doctor first encountered in last year’s audio original The Eye of the Jungle.

Arthur Darvill – Rory in the TV series – reads this nail-biting original adventure.

9/27/2012 05:14:00 pm -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

BBC Books are to release a special book inspired by this weekend's episode, The Angels Take Manhattan; The Angel's Kiss is a 112-page novella written by Justin Richards, and is the first book in the range to be published that has been written from the perspective of one of the show's characters:

Melody Malone not only runs her own agency, she also happens to be the author of a successful series of novels, featuring one Melody Malone.

The book will only be available electronically, and is published on 4th October 2012, a few days after the episode's premiere.

The Angel's Kiss
A Melody Malone MysteryBy Melody Malone

On some days, New York is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
This was one of the other days...

Melody Malone, owner and sole employee of the Angel Detective Agency, has an unexpected caller. It's movie star Rock Railton, and he thinks someone is out to kill him. When he mentions the 'kiss of the Angel', she takes the case. Angels are Melody's business…

At the press party for Railton's latest movie, studio owner Max Kliener invites Melody to the film set of their next blockbuster. He's obviously spotted her potential, and Melody is flattered when Kliener asks her to become a star. But the cost of fame, she'll soon discover, is greater than anyone could possibly imagine.

Will Melody be able to escape Kliener's dastardly plan – before the Angels take Manhattan?

Amy reads a Melody Malone Mystery, as seen in The Angels Take Manhattan:

9/27/2012 04:01:00 pm -
Reported by
Chuck Foster

Moon Boots and Dinner Suits:

We are thrilled to bring this autobiography to a new generation. The book has been out of print for over twenty-six years. We will retain all the original content, whilst adding new material including photographs and an introduction from Ingeborg Pertwee.

The autobiography is due to be published on 4th February 2013 in both paperback and hardback, with an audiobook to be announced shortly.

Jon Pertwee’s acting career began with a public performance at the age of four. He seems to have been expelled from most of the schools his actorwriter father Roland Pertwee sent him to and finally joined RADA in 1936.

From there too, he was asked to leave. Jon went into Rep and had a checkered career. In Brighton panic set in when he dressed as an old gardener in Love from a Stranger instead of as a young cleric in Candida.

In 1938 came Jon’s first radio role in the BBC’s Lillibulero, in which year he also appeared in his father’s play, To Kill a Cat, directed by Henry Kendall at the Aldwych Theatre. When war came he joined the Navy, ramming Douglas Pier with an Isle of Man Stream Packet boat. He was blown up twice, once being put on a marble slab presumed dead, and spent many months stationed in the Scapa Flow. He was the founder of the Service Players in the Isle of Man. He was commissioned in the RNVR and transferred to Naval Intelligence where he worked and became good friends with the future Prime Minister James Callaghan. Then Jon joined Naval Broadcasting. His radio series, The Navy Lark, ran for eighteen years and produced some truly vintage memories of radio.

Whether telling stories of a misspent youth, of his posterior’s first painful introduction to a fives bat or his exploits with the McKenzie sisters in the north of Scotland, Jon Pertwee's humour and natural wit never fail him. Moon Boots and Dinner Suits is a wry, funny and endearing portrait of the early years of a most innovative and well-loved actor.

Patrick Troughton - The Biography of the Second Doctor Who:

Fantom are also to release an audio version of Patrick Troughton's Biography, to be read by the book's author, Michael Troughton. The unabridged reading is to be released on six discs in March 2013, with signed copies available on pre-order from the Fantom website.

Respected and loved, Patrick Troughton is probably best remembered as the second Doctor Who - a role in which he made television history. A prolific actor, he was also a complex and troubled man, constantly wrestling with two lives, one of which he was determined to keep secret.

Michael Troughton presents here an entertaining and personal account of his father’s professional and private life. Meticulously researched, he explores Patrick’s childhood, his experiences at sea during World War II and the successful acting career which led to his historic casting as Doctor Who in 1966. Patrick’s Doctor Who years are recalled in vivid detail, from his initial uncertainty about taking on the part through the legendary ‘monster years’, to his troubled final season and three subsequent returns to the role.

In this fascinating biography, Patrick’s extraordinary career and his multi-layered personal life are enhanced by the memories of family members, actors, friends and colleagues. Michael peppers the biography with revealing extracts from Patrick’s own diaries, and presents an honest, affectionate and complete account of Patrick Troughton the actor, and Patrick Troughton the man.

9/25/2012 03:55:00 pm -
Reported by
John Bowman

A deal has been struck between stickers specialist Topps Europe and BBC Worldwide to bring out a Doctor Who trading card game next year.

According to a report by Toy News, it will focus on key characters and images since the show returned to our screens in 2005, including those from Series 7. Topps will also be marking the programme's 50th anniversary by bringing out a line of memorabilia from across those five decades.

This isn't Topps' first foray into the worlds of Doctor Who. The company has previously brought out sticker collections related to the show, with the first one released in 2006.

Louise Ramplin, Topps Europe's entertainment marketing manager, said:

Doctor Who has always been a highly successful licence for us for our sticker collections, so we are very excited to have a brand new Doctor Who trading card game to add to our portfolio.

As well as packets of trading cards, the collection will also include collector tins and starter packs.